What can you catch off Vivonne Bay Jetty?

Huge tommy ruff at night are what it is famous for, with big trevally in winter alongside King George whiting, calamari and garfish. The beach beside the Harriet River mouth adds salmon, mullet, flathead, school sharks and bream to nearly a kilogram, and Point Ellen at the western end gives sweep, salmon and trevally off the rocks.

Can you catch squid at Vivonne Bay?

Yes, and this is the only Kangaroo Island platform where you can. The fishing-zone boundary follows the island's north coastline, so the south coast is outside the Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zone where calamari and garfish have been closed since 1 May 2026. Here calamari is open at 15 per person with no size limit, and garfish at 23 cm with a bag of 30.

Can you keep snapper at Vivonne Bay?

Yes. The island's south coast sits inside the South East snapper fishery area, so snapper is open at 38 cm with a bag of 5 and a boat limit of 15 while the rest of the state is closed until 30 June 2027. Every snapper kept must be reported through the free SA Fishing app, and you cannot carry it back across the closed zone, so landing it at Penneshaw is not legal.

Is there a boat ramp at Vivonne Bay?

No. There is a rough launch site that depends entirely on the weather and nothing more. The nearest proper facilities are on the north coast, and this is not a coast to improvise a launch on.

Where is the nearest sanctuary zone to Vivonne Bay?

The Seal Bay Sanctuary Zone begins 5.9 km east of the jetty, with no habitat-protection buffer in front of it, so the no-take water starts exactly at the park line. The Seal Bay restricted access zone, where entry itself is prohibited, is about 9 km east. Vivonne Bay itself is outside the marine park, and the fishing is legal right up to that line.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Vivonne Bay Jetty

Wed 21 Oct 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

Forecast updated 12:32am ACDT

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21 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 24 Oct

📍 Vivonne Bay Jetty

waxing gibbous · 73%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: SE 143° · 12 km/h Swell: 1.6 m @ 10 s SW Water: 16.5 °C Pressure: 1020.2 hPa ↓ falling Faces east · Offshore: SW, W, NW · Onshore: NE, E, SE · Forecast wind: onshore

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 8:30 pm

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind SE 9 km/h

Moon waxing gibbous all day

Water temp 16.5 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 6:04 am Last light 8:08 pm

High 9:40 am Low 6:00 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

7:30 pm → 10:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

9:00 am → 10:30 am

1h 30m

Good

6:00 am → 7:00 am

First light

6:04 am

Last light

8:08 pm

Sunrise

6:30 am

Sunset

7:41 pm

Moonrise

2:37 pm

Moonset

3:39 am

High tide

9:40 am

Low tide

6:00 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

15°

↓︎

167°

11 km/h

1am

☁️

15°

↓︎

171°

10 km/h

2am

🌧️

15°

↓︎

177°

9 km/h

3am

🌧️

14°

↓︎

185°

8 km/h

4am

☁️

14°

↓︎

201°

9 km/h

5am

☁️

14°

↙︎

209°

8 km/h

6am

☁️

13°

↓︎

202°

8 km/h

7am

☁️

14°

↓︎

186°

9 km/h

8am

☁️

15°

↓︎

176°

10 km/h

9am

☁️

16°

↘︎

153°

9 km/h

10am

☁️

17°

↘︎

120°

8 km/h

11am

☁️

18°

↘︎

121°

8 km/h

12pm

☁️

18°

↘︎

143°

12 km/h

1pm

☀️

18°

↘︎

133°

13 km/h

2pm

☀️

19°

↘︎

138°

17 km/h

3pm

☀️

19°

↘︎

137°

18 km/h

4pm

☀️

19°

↘︎

138°

17 km/h

5pm

☀️

18°

↘︎

150°

16 km/h

6pm

☀️

16°

↘︎

152°

14 km/h

7pm

☀️

15°

↘︎

142°

9 km/h

8pm

☁️

15°

↘︎

126°

9 km/h

9pm

☁️

15°

↘︎

130°

7 km/h

10pm

☀️

15°

↘︎

136°

6 km/h

11pm

☁️

14°

→︎

105°

8 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 1.5 → 2.0 m SW

12am

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

1am

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

2am

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

3am

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

4am

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

5am

1.4 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

6am

1.4 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

7am

1.4 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

8am

1.4 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

9am

1.4 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

10am

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

11am

1.4 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

12pm

1.6 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

1pm

1.7 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

2pm

1.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

3pm

1.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

4pm

1.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

5pm

1.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

6pm

1.9 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

7pm

1.9 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

8pm

1.9 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

9pm

1.9 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

10pm

2.0 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

11pm

2.0 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.4° over the last 3 days

Sun

18 Oct

16.1°

Mon

19 Oct

16.1°

Tue

20 Oct

16.3°

Wed

21 Oct

16.5°

Thu

22 Oct

16.9°

Fri

23 Oct

16.8°

Sat

24 Oct

16.5°

Sun

25 Oct

16.5°

Mon

26 Oct

16.4°

Tue

27 Oct

16.4°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 12 km/h SE (143°).

Wind map data: ECMWF HRES (operational), updated every 6 hours. Not for navigation.

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

7:30 pm → 10:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

9:00 am → 10:30 am

1h 30m

Good

6:00 am → 7:00 am

First light

6:04 am

Last light

8:08 pm

Sunrise

6:30 am

Sunset

7:41 pm

Moonrise

2:37 pm

Moonset

3:39 am

High tide

9:40 am

Low tide

6:00 pm

Species at This Spot